Update on Mobile Crisis!

August 06, 2025

In considering the possible changes proposed in the BH Redesign, we wanted to look at the challenges which we have seen in the recent rollout of Mobile Crisis and the reported abuse of the flexibilities which are allowed.  It is damaging to all private sector providers when a few are manipulating the flexibilities to their benefit as opposed to the benefit of the individuals they support.

 

Recent conversations have provided the following information:

• There has been an increase in the oversight by DBHDS both from the Office of Crisis Services and the Office of Licensing
• The structure of the Mobile Crisis (988) referral service is being refined to set standards for the responsibility of the “Hubs” to manage the regional system through Memoranda of Understanding with the private mobile crisis providers.  The standards include the expectations for how the service system should function in each region and the number of providers included through the offer of an MOU and with attention to items such as:
  • Are providers consistently meeting the requirements for response time, but not showing a high number of time of less than 5 minutes (which suggests that they were not called to the site, but rather already on site and perhaps encouraging/assisting an individuals to call 988)?
  • Is the provider serving a high percentage of repeat consumers?
  • Is the typical length of each service event – if all (or the vast majority) of the events are the full 8 allowable hours, it suggests that the interventions are not necessarily tailored to the needs of the individual?  And,
  • Are the assessments properly conducted by an LMHP or LMHP-type staff, the determination is made that the individual meets the admission criteria and the Mobile Crisis Response Teams consistently meet the staff requirements as outlined and as demonstrated by both the clinical records, and also review of the payroll/compensation records of the providers?

 

The “Hubs” have the responsibility to manage the functioning of the regional system of providers by entering in to or renewing the MOU’s, the MCO’s have a responsibility for monitoring patterns of claims which seem unusual, and DMAS/DBHDS have the responsibility to utilize the regulatory authority that they have to monitor licensed providers.